THE Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) has revived its partnership with the Nigerian Press Council (NPC) with a strategic plan of promoting training and capacity building of staff of the Council on copyright.
Director-General, NCC, Mr. John O. Asein disclosed this during a courtesy visit to the Executive Secretary of NPC, Mr. Francis N. Nwosu at the Council’s Headquarters in Abuja recently.
The DG, NCC who was accompanied by the Director, Nigerian Copyright Academy (NCA), Mr. Mike Akpan and Director, Public Affairs, Mr. Vincent A. Oyefeso, said the visit was intended to explore areas of interest between the Commission and the NPC. He recalled that both agencies had existed in the past under the then Federal Ministry of Culture and Tourism before the Commission was relocated to the Federal Ministry of Justice on 15th February 2006.
The Director-General stressed that a nexus existed between the Commission and NPC. “We have areas in our mandates that overlap and there is always a copyright element in every news item on the electronic and print media”, he stated. The Director-General further explained that journalists required adequate knowledge of how the copyright law operates to guide them against copyright infringement.
The Executive Secretary, in his response, expressed delight at the visit of the Director-General to the Nigerian Press Council. He said the visit was auspicious as it came at a time when there was gross abuse of copyright in media contents.
The Executive Secretary welcomed the initiative to revive the relationship existing between the two organisations.
He indicated that work would start immediately on a proposal for the NCC to train staff of the Council to become conversant with the operations of the copyright system.
Other Management staff of NPC present at the event were Dr. David Adeniken, Director of Finance; Mrs. Stella Jibrin, Director, Research and Documentation; Mr. T. O. Okereke, Deputy Director, Administration and Mr. Victor Aladu, Deputy Director and Special Assistant to the Executive Secretary.
Vincent A. Oyefeso
Director, Public Affairs
For: Director-General
